Winnipeg: Just outside Winnipeg, overlooking the Prairies, stands Stony Mountain Penitentiary, a medium-security federal facility which once held wrongfully convicted Canadian David Milgaard within its cold walls and electrified fences.

While the prison is still home to many convicts, for two days in early September it doubled as a film location, allowing coproducers Laszlo Barna of Toronto’s Barna-Alper, Winnipeg-based Ritchard Findlay of Marble Island and Martin Harbury of Bar Harbour, Toronto, to recount Hard Time: The David Milgaard Story with the utmost authenticity.

The $3-million mow is slated to air as a ctv Signature Presentation sometime in 1999.

The two-hour story is being shot on various locations around Winnipeg by cinematographer David Frazee under the direction of Stephen Williams.

Keith Ross Leckie wrote the original script with the assistance of Milgaard and his mother Joyce.

Alliance is distributing worldwide.

Securing the Stony Mountain location was a task for Findlay, who was in charge of negotiations between the production and the prison.

A month of talks preceded the green light, which came with some strict guidelines foreign to most location shoots, yet appropriate under these circumstances.

For starters, prior to arriving on set everyone was subject to a background check. On the day of the shoot, before taking a step past the front desk of Stony Mountain, the guard requested two pieces of id and scanned them for traces of any illegal substances. Following that – provided you passed – was a quick briefing on the rules of the visit.

All purses, bags and car keys had to be left at the front, and before any camera gear was unloaded and brought through the gates, the prison dogs gave it a good sniff.

As if all this wasn’t enough to give the film a real-life flavor, the extras – reluctant guests of Stony Mountain – are as authentic as it gets.

When Findlay is asked why he’s using the prison’s inmates in the film, his answer is simple, and obvious: ‘Look at them.’

Not exactly your usual casting call, Findlay had Al, one of the prisoners, ask around and compile a list of everyone interested in appearing in the movie.

Although the producers were only in the market for about 24 men – 10 for each day plus a couple of spares – the response was overwhelming; Al returned with a list of 120 names which Findlay eventually narrowed down to 40.

While each candidate could easily pull off the role of an inmate, the producer had his eyes peeled for those with haircuts worn in the ’80s, when the action takes place.

Something else that had to be considered when selecting from the lineup of extras was whether or not the men would fit into the green pants and shirt uniforms supplied by wardrobe as many weighed in at around 300 pounds.

The extras were paid actra rates, however, since prisoners are not permitted to receive money, all wages went directly to the Inmate Welfare Committee and will be used towards repairing gym equipment and buying new instruments for the band.

Playing David Milgaard is Ian Tracey (DaVinci’s Inquest, Rupert’s Land), Gabrielle Rose (The Sweet Hereafter, Win, Again) is his devoted mother Joyce, and portraying his sister Maureen is Reagan Pasternak.

Making a movie based on a real story such as this presented some challenges for the production team.

‘When it’s fiction, you can do whatever you want and go with whatever is convenient and works for dramatic purposes,’ says Harbury. ‘But when it comes to telling documented fact, you have to be careful. You have a responsibility to those in the story.’

On the other hand, Barna says it is important not to lose sight of the fact that it still has to be entertaining and dramatic.

The mow is bookended in the present and recounts Milgaard’s sad and unjust story from age 16, when he is charged with the brutal 1969 sex-slaying of Gail Miller, a 20-year-old nursing aide, to age 17, when he is wrongfully convicted of the murder. The story continues through the next 23 years which he spent behind bars.

Day one of the Stony Mountain shoot takes place in the outdoor visiting area, a small grassy space which on this bright sunny morning packed with a film crew doesn’t really seem like a prison at all – except for the guards (who are also the real deal in the movie) and the large men wearing numbered shirts in the background.

The scene is a family visit and David is playing a game of backgammon with his sister and mother. When the siblings start goofing around the nervous mother tells them to behave themselves, there will be plenty of time for fun when David returns home following the upcoming parole hearings.

Despite his mother’s words, David isn’t so optimistic – at this point in the film he has already been incarcerated for 10 years and the only way he can gain parole is by admitting guilt, something he never did.

Later that day, the crew moves upstairs to the prison barber shop – complete with barber poles but no mirrors or glass – where David sheds his long shaggy hair.

Since the two-by-four cells are too cramped to film in, behind-the-bars scenes were played out on a constructed set and some dolly shots took place on one of the ranges, a long cold hallway which houses 18 cells. Additional lensing took place at the provincial court.

According to Barna, the two days at Stony Mountain were the hardest for the actors because it brought them ‘into the bowels and the ugly reality of the story; all the fears and apprehensions are spelled out in the geography of the location.’